Wryness of Wyness has Hearts pumping

PAUL FORSYTH AT TYNECASTLE

HEARTS 1 Wyness 75
RANGERS 1 Moore 55 pen

THEY used to say there was no way back from a goal conceded to either half of the Old Firm. Rangers went ahead yesterday, and looked for all the world as though they were about to score a second, but still contrived to almost lose the match with an alarming demonstration of fragility.

Having taken the lead with a disputed penalty nine minutes into the second half, they were entitled to suppose that they had done the hard bit. When Peter Lovenkrands darted in behind the Hearts back four to meet a perfect, curling cross by Maurice Ross, he could not have expected that his wasteful sidefoot over the bar would be so costly.

"That was the turning point," said his manager, Alex McLeish, who played Lovenkrands through the middle in partnership with Ronald De Boer. Shota Arveladze and Steven Thompson were absent through injury, and so was the killer instinct that Rangers have lacked for so long. The problem against Celtic was a failure to create chances, whereas here it was a failure to convert them.

Hearts’ goalkeeper, Craig Gordon, denied Ronald De Boer at the same crucial stage, one of several athletic saves by the young Scot, and Fernando Ricksen had a header cleared off the line by Alan Maybury. "It gave Hearts a wee lift, and they came back at us," said McLeish. "Having been in no danger until then, we looked a bit ropey after that."

There were 15 minutes left when Steven Pressley hurled in a free kick at the back post, and Craig Moore’s clearing header failed to escape the penalty area. Substitute Dennis Wyness, who had scored a hat-trick in midweek for Hearts’ under-21 side, strode on to the dropping ball and thrashed it low beyond Stefan Klos’ left hand.

Suddenly Hearts were level and, despite a let-off when Ross wriggled clear of the defence to poke a weak shot wide, the last quarter of an hour was a spectacle from which the eyes could not be lifted. Substitute Andy Kirk, on for Graham Weir, was everywhere, testing Klos with a rasping angled shot, and in the game’s last breath sending a deflected drive over the top.

His were not the best chances, though. In injury time, Neil Janczyk, another substitute, might have seized the glory with a powerful strike that careered off Moore’s head, and Joe Hamill will wonder how on earth he managed to skew wide from eight yards. Asked later if Hamill was gutted, his manager, Craig Levein, replied: "I don’t know. He hasn’t taken his head from between his legs."

The game had been turned upside down by Hearts, who had competed well in a typically fraught encounter, but come up with nothing more threatening than a couple of ambitious pot-shots.

Only Maybury had troubled Klos in a frenetic first half, but his strike was too straight, and the goalkeeper fisted it away.

Rangers had managed little better for most of the opening period, but just before the interval they came to life. Half-time was six minutes away when Phil Stamp failed at the front post to get enough of his head on Ricksen’s corner, the consequence of which was a nifty flick that Patrick Kisnorbo rose to head against his own crossbar.

The resulting corner was cleared, this time in the right direction, but Stephen Hughes kept his eye on the dropping ball to unleash a dipping volley from just inside the edge of the penalty area. It would have been the sweetest of goals had Gordon not tipped it over with an unlikely stretch of his left arm.

The 21-year-old goalkeeper made a similar save just a few seconds later, when Moore applied a glancing header to Ricksen’s free kick.

That flurry just before the interval was perhaps enough to merit Rangers’ breakthrough just after it, but the goal was secured in controversial circumstances. Only a minute or two earlier, referee Kenny Clark had waved aside Gavin Rae’s claim that Webster had fouled him inside the box. When the official then punished Robbie Neilson for what was, at worst, a clumsy barge into Lovenkrands, the home support were up in arms.

Clark, though, had pointed to the spot and Moore, who later insisted that he does not want to make a habit of it, played a captain’s role with a low shot into the bottom left-hand corner.

"I didn’t see too many who wanted to go and take it," he said. "But, with the season we are having, I didn’t think missing a penalty would be too much of a concern."

These are turbulent times for Rangers. Moore’s assumption of responsibility is the kind of thing they need more of, but his contract expires at the end of next season, and talks about an extension have been delayed. Having already postponed negotiations until he had recovered from long-term injury, the Australian defender does not expect to address his future until after the summer.

"At the moment I am happy here," he said. "The thing for me is to see what is going to happen next season. We know we will lose players, so it is important to see who will come in. There is plenty of time left to sit down and talk, if that is what is going to happen. I have a part to play in trying to help things get better again."

An estimated 3,000 Hearts fans marched to yesterday’s match from Saughton Park in an attempt to point out that the club’s board, intent on moving to Murrayfield, are out of touch with those who support it.

At least their team, 12 points shy of second place in the Premierleague, have kept in touch with Rangers.

Taken from the Scotsman